Friday, December 30, 2011

Here is a sad Christmas story conveying no particular lesson other than, perhaps, the speed at which kids can soak up a foreign culture.

My mum, aged 72, is an interpreter. In case you don't know, I am second generation Iranian (Persian is a Californian expression I refuse to use). So my mum interprets for Iranians and Afghanis who are asylum seekers (most claim to be gay or converts to Christianity in the hope they will be granted permanent leave to stay) or simply not fluent in English. She attends court, meetings with lawyers and hospital appointments including births where she has ended up in tears holding a newborn because dad was in Afghanistan and mum was under a general anaesthetic with no other relatives.

Recently she was called to interpret for a 12 year old Afghan boy who had turned up in the UK on the back of a lorry. The lorry had come to a halt on some B road in the middle of the wilds of Lancashire, the back doors opened, and he had been ordered off. It was 2am, freezing and he was on a country lane with no houses, street lights or people to ask for help. A reminder: he was 12 years old - only a few years older than my own twins. And he spoke no English.

He was starving and unsure of where he was, so he walked. Eventually he reached a small town where he saw some lights. He hoped he could find food where the lights were shining from. It turned out to be a nightclub. A kindly bouncer took him to the local police station and directly into foster care.

We look after child asylum seekers here in the UK. This kid was given a complete health check, sent to school and his kindly foster parents even bought him a PAYG mobile phone.

"Did you go to school in Afghanistan? My mum has asked him when she was asked to interpret for the Social Services.
"No."
"Then what did you do?"
"After my dad died, my uncle took me in and I watched over his donkeys."

The same uncle had paid some gangsters to have him transported to the UK. He had no mother.

My mum next saw him a few weeks later and once settled in with his foster family. There had been a disagreement between him and his foster parents. The foster dad had explained that the boy point blank refused to wear clothes bought in TK Max (TJ MAx in the US) and wanted the exact same brands/styles from JD Sports at 4 times the price.

When my mum asked him what the difference was between the products he replied that there were none. So why did he want to pay more?

Silence.

My mum asked him if he wanted to go back to his donkeys. I think it was her way of telling him how fortunate he was.

Silence.

My mum, being 72, could not comprehend a 12year old mind that wanted to pay more for the exact same product. I can understand but cannot articulate it into words. Another article perhaps.

5 comments:

just an idle thought but this could be the opposite of discounting. It may seem intuitive to us that given the choice of buying a brand at 2 different prices that we would naturally prefer the one at the lower price. But if what he is looking for is regard status then he may feel insulted that his foster parents are palming off clothes on him at the cheaper price. If they respected him they would buy the clothes at the higher price. There is a parallel in Japan where I was brought up where whisky is never discounted. Gifting is so central to the culture that if you don't know how much the person who gave the gift spent (or worse that they took advantage of a BOGOF) then how can you value the gift? How to proceed if I am right? The boy can't live on designer clothes. But if he were bought clothes at the standard price from a retailer like M&S where there is no way (sales apart) from discounting via 3rd parties - would that reassure him?

I agree, he isn't using the 'designer' or 'prestige' mode of reasoning, but seeking value per se and hasn't added the capitalist 'perks' to his reasoning. We westerners value getting the same quality at a cheaper price, but some cultures haven't gone through that transition. I'll buy the jeans for him!:)

There is a parallel in Japan where I was brought up where whisky is never discounted. Gifting is so central to the culture that if you don't know how much the person who gave the gift spent (or worse that they took advantage of a BOGOF) then how can you value the gift? How to proceed if I am right? The boy can't live on designer clothes.

About this site

My name is Siamack Salari and I am a partner at www.ethosapp.com. I am also the President of the Mobile Marketing Research Association (http://www.mmra-global.org/).
This is a sister site to my Linked in Group which is also called, Ethnosnacker (www.linkedin.com/e/gis/129888). I created, ethnosnacker to stimulate much needed debate about what commercial ethnographic research is, isn't and should be.
I also use this site to share my day-to-day experience of managing a mobile ethnographic research platform (www.ethosapp.com).
I want this blog to serve as a single 'place' for all of us who have any interest at all in adding meaning to observations of every day life to 'meet', share and exchange ideas, knowledge and news.
Feel free to contact me at siamack(at)ethosapp(dot)com with articles, comments, suggestions and ideas to make this resource as useful as possible.
Thank you for visiting.